Information communication system with information aggregator for uninterruptable power supply

Abstract

An information communication system includes a communication network configured to exchange uninterruptable power supply, UPS, information; a UPS connected to the communication network and configured to exchange UPS information to the communication network; an information collector configured to collect and process the UPS information; wherein the information collector has no direct access to the UPS information; wherein the information communication system comprises an information aggregator connected to the communication network and configured to poll the UPS information from the UPS; generate collector information using the polled UPS information; and send the collector information to the information collector.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An information communication system, comprising:
 a communication network, configured to exchange uninterruptable power supply, UPS, information;   a UPS, connected to the communication network, wherein the UPS is configured to exchange UPS information to the communication network;   an information collector, wherein the information collector is configured to collect and process the UPS information;   wherein the information collector has no direct access to the UPS information by not knowing how to poll the UPS and/or not being able to interpret the UPS information;   wherein the information communication system comprises an information aggregator provided with a plurality of specific polling protocols, that is connected to the communication network and is configured:   to poll the UPS information from the UPS by executing a specific polling protocol from among the plurality for polling UPS information from the UPS;   to generate collector information using the polled UPS information; and   to send the collector information to the information collector.   
     
     
         2 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the information aggregator is configured to generate collector information from the polled UPS information to be at least partly accessible by the information collector. 
     
     
         3 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of information aggregators. 
     
     
         4 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the information aggregator is integrated into the UPS. 
     
     
         5 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the UPS comprises a UPS network adapter; wherein the UPS network adapter is configured to connect the UPS to the communication network; and wherein the information aggregator is integrated into the UPS network adapter. 
     
     
         6 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the UPS comprises an aggregator network adapter; wherein the aggregator network adapter is configured to be plugged into the UPS; and wherein the information aggregator is integrated into the aggregator network adapter. 
     
     
         7 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the UPS is directly connected to the information collector; and wherein the UPS is configured to directly provide the UPS information to the information collector when the information aggregator initiates polling the UPS information from the UPS. 
     
     
         8 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an information collector interface configured to exchange information with the information collector;   wherein the information aggregator is configured to send the collector information to the information collector through the information collector interface.   
     
     
         9 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the information aggregator comprises a cache memory, and wherein the information aggregator is configured to store the UPS information and/or the collector information in the cache memory. 
     
     
         10 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the UPS information comprises status information about the UPS. 
     
     
         11 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the UPS supports the RFC 1628 protocol. 
     
     
         12 . The information communication system of  claim 1 , wherein the information aggregator uses a simple network monitoring protocol, SNMP, to poll the UPS information from the UPS. 
     
     
         13 . The information communication system of  claim 3 , wherein the plurality of information aggregators builds a hierarchical information polling stack, wherein at least one of the plurality of information aggregators polls the UPS information from the plurality of information aggregators.